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    #246062 09/10/19 08:43 AM
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    Irena Offline OP
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    Could someone help me with these KTEA-3 Brief Scores?

    Composite
    Standard Score
    Description
    Reading 127 Above Average
    Math 122 Above Average
    Writing 100 Average

    Subtests
    Letter & Word Recognition 123 Above average
    Reading Comprehension 126 Above average
    Math Computation 116 Above average
    Math Concepts & Applications 125 Above average
    Written Expression 97 Average
    Spelling 100 Average

    Child (my 14 year old son) has an IEP for specific learning disability in Written Expressions and I fear the school may push to take away IEP based on these scores. Not sure how he scored average in writing when he can not handwrite to save his life.

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    aeh Offline
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    Whether this results in a finding of no eligibility depends on your state statutes, and on your school practices. Most of the scores are generally within expectations for a GT learner, with the exception of the two writing tasks, which are, indeed, age-appropriate without necessarily being ability-appropriate (aka, they can be considered "unexpected underachievement" under some state statutes). A few thoughts:

    1. Written Expression is a single subtest made up of a number of writing tasks. Does the write up include any kind of error analysis? This instrument does allow for a reasonable degree of more fine-grained interpretation. If it does not describe error analysis, I would ask them if any patterns were observed when error analysis is conducted. The examiner does not need any special materials outside of the base test kit to do this--though they will do better with interpretation if they have stronger clinical skills. There are qualitative differences between writing that has most of its point deductions taken for mechanical reasons (spelling, capitalization, punctuation), and writing with most deductions in language categories.

    2. Handwriting is not the same as written expressive language. This subtest is largely untimed, and consists mostly of brief written responses, with the exception of the final extended writing sample, which does not constitute all that much of the overall score. His products were not penalized for poor handwriting. If it was legible to the examiner (who, if they are anything like most of the assessors I know in special education, myself included, probably can decipher a pretty extreme level of illegible handwriting), then it was scored on his actual work, rather than his handwriting.

    A more important question is what accommodations and skill remediation are actually needed. Hard to tell from just these scores how he does with authentic grade-level writing (which is more like the extended writing part of the subtest--which we can't tell if it is consistent with the brief writing samples). If his handwriting is nearly illegible (or maybe not even nearly!), then assistive tech accommodations (under IEP, 504, or building-based general accommodations, such as exist in many 1:1 technology schools) seem appropriate: typed response, standard word processing supports, maybe speech-to-text for first drafts. If that alone brings the quality of his written product up into his ability-range, then he may not need the intensity of an IEP. Possibly a 504 or generally-available accommodations (such as in universal design for learning or 1:1 tech buildings) would be sufficient. If the quality of his writing is still compromised, even after handwriting is fully accommodated, then it makes sense to look at where the actual written expression deficits lie, and discuss additional expressive language supports. These are the types of questions that should be explored in the discussion not only of eligibility, but of appropriate services.


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    Irena Offline OP
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    Thank AEH. This is helpful. I absolutely do not want them removing his IEP and replacing it with a 504 in high school. I really do not want to give up our due process rights and potentially cripple ourselves legally before I see how he handles high school. I appreciate your concern that he may not "need" an IEP anymore but I fought really really hard for it and he has been successful because of it. I do not think freshman year of high school is the time to experiment with pulling his IEP. Perhaps I should consider formally disagreeing with the school's re-eval and having him re- evaluated independently to see if he still needs services. I am really not sure how he came out "average" on the writing portion when I had them have him hand-write the portion specifically to document his disability. And I can tell you he can barely write his damn name and still writes certain numbers and letters backwards!

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    aeh Offline
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    I can see why you feel that way. If you pursue additional testing through any avenue, you may wish to consider more in-depth writing assessment, such as the TOWL-4, which looks at different aspects of writing a bit more distinctly than the KTEA does. It is a handwritten test, so any impact handwriting has on his compositional skills should leave some kind of mark. As noted previously, this type of data should inform the development of his support plan, with regard to both accommodations and specialized instruction.

    And one other perspective: a learner with sufficient intellectual resources and determination sometimes can pull together enough to generate a decent (or even high) quality product if it is not too long, and this effort does not have to be sustained over too long of a period of time. His classroom teachers have to contribute to the conversation as well. Their reports may be consistent or inconsistent with the 1:1 test findings. If you are particularly concerned with writing, request the presence of the English teacher or other person on his schedule with content expertise in written expression at his meeting. This teacher should help to put his skills-in-isolation in the larger context of expectations for quality output in his actual classes.

    Even if he is found eligible, if the teacher (as is very possible) has not collected enough writing samples at this early stage in the school year to form a clear assessment of his writing, you can also consider an extended evaluation, to include further formal (TOWL-4) and informal (teacher observations) writing assessment. This would most likely (depending on your state) require the team to find him eligible, and either 1) generate a provisional IEP, which you would then sign, with the mutual understanding that it would be revised after the additional evaluative data was collected (usually in 4-8 weeks, again depending on the state); or 2) find that insufficient information was available to design the IEP, requiring the additional evaluations, in which case he would be on stay-put services until the new IEP was developed and signed.


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    aeh #246071 09/13/19 05:45 AM
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    Irena Offline OP
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    Thank you so much. This is good idea. I just want to add, to clarify, the problem with my kid (besides motor planning and attention issues) is that he can not hand write. Like, physically. He can not make letters, cannot think about what he is writing and make letters, writes backwards, etc. He is actually quite a strong writer with technology. And he has very low processing speed (basically he just moves slowly). So on the one hand - yeah I can see why the school's position would be he doesn't really need an IEP any more - give him some extra time accommodations and some tech and he should be fine. And maybe he will be . But for the reasons I stated earlier I just do not want to experiment with that first year of high school, ya know? Also, the school has not yet specifically said they want to pull the IEP but I really think I need to be prepared for it. Thanks again for all your help!

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    aeh Offline
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    Always a pleasure!


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